The UAE handled 15.4 million TEU in 2017 up by 4.0 percent year-on-year.

Group chairman and CEO Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem said the company had benefited from the improved trading environment as well as market share gains.

“Over the years, we have deployed the relevant deep-water capacity in key markets, focusing on a diversified portfolio which continues to benefit from the recovery in global trade.
“We are also pleased to see stable performance in the UAE as volumes continued to grow in the fourth quarter of 2017 amidst uncertainty in the region,” he noted.

Looking ahead this year, Bin Sulayem said the company would continue to seek opportunities in complementary sectors of the global supply chain industry.

Speaking at the Breakbulk Middle East February event in Dubai, DP World Commercial director for the UAE Abdulla Bin Damithan said Gulf breakbulk and project cargo business was set to grow this year as Dubai continued its infrastructure investments in the run-up to Expo 2020.

Last month construction company Laing O’Rourke won contracts valued at US$182.4 million to build Expo 2020’s Leadership and Media Pavilions, and the event’s ‘Hammerhead’ access road to Al Wasl Plaza.

The Al Wasl Plaza will form the centrepiece of Expo 2020’s 4.38 square kilometer site in Dubai South.

Ahmed Al Khatib, senior vice president of Real Estate and Delivery at Expo 2020 Dubai commented: “These projects will be constructed in close proximity to the UAE Pavilion and other pavilions. This area is already a hive of construction activity, with all of these projects being built simultaneously. With this in mind, close collaboration between construction companies on site will be vital to coordinate logistics and ensure that work continues according to our schedule.”

Construction related to Expo 2020 is expected to reach its peak towards the end of 2018 and early 2019.